United We Fall
by LilacFree
Summary: Spoilers for Tenth Doctor episode 'Doomsday'. What do the former companions of the Doctor do when they know the world is about to come to an end? They've got the experience to know how bad it could be, but they don't have the Doctor, only each other.
1. Chapter 1

Set during the Tenth Doctor episode 'Doomsday'. Assumes history from 'School Reunion' for Sarah Jane Smith and includes the plot from a BBC novel that had Tegan married to the son of Ian and Barbara.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. Sad me.

"You won't even think about coming home? What? AGAIN? You can't be bloody serious—WHAT? Oh, Dad, you're forty not twenty. I thought all that was behind you. WHAT did you say? Christ, Dad, you're pissed. Look, I love you, even if you did put a bun in the oven of some bint my age. Just make sure you sign a prenup, okay? And watch out for those ghosts."

Alice hung up the phone, chewed briefly on her lower lip, and then dialed another number.

"Mum? It's Alice. Yes, I got hold of him. No, he won't come home. He's in Vegas, getting married again. No, his fourth—I know, he's a serial husband. Mum, she's my age. It's disgusting, really. And she's American to boot. Look, are you sure about those ghosts? What? Are you mad? Who'll look after Gran—WHAT? Oh, hell. Look, I left a message for Aunt Sarah; you don't really need to come. I can go stay with her, I'm sure. Aunt Sarah's connected. Surely you'll both be safer up north." Alice was quiet for several minutes while her mum laid down the law.

"You're scaring me. All right, I'll pack up. See you soon. You've got my mobile number? Good. Love you, mum."

Alice Barbara Chesterton hung up the phone and looked out the window. It was almost time for the ghost shift. A ghost kept walking through her kitchen and she no longer felt excited over it. Her mother's words had chilled her: 'I think I've seen them before and they weren't friendly, Alice. And they're everywhere.' She made another phone call.

"Aunt Sarah, it's Alice again. Mum's coming down with Gran. We're meeting at your place, so I hope you're there. Oh, God, it's starting again." She hung up on Aunt Sarah's answering machine. Dodging the ghostly figure that stepped out of her kitchen, she hurried down the hall to start packing her things.

Tegan Jovanka finished hauling the suitcases to the car. Her former mother-in-law was as slim and straight as she'd ever been, but not as fast. She settled into the passenger seat and waited for Tegan to get behind the wheel. "Alice couldn't get hold of Sarah Jane?"

"No answer. Sarah is probably covering the story. I just hope she checks her messages. I've got a key to her flat. She's bound to come back or check in."

Barbara Chesterton, nee Wright, watched a ghost striding up the village street towards them.

"I wish Johnny would come home, but he's still putting off growing up. You'd think three marriages would settle a man. Maybe if you'd made him pay alimony he'd have been embittered enough to think twice before taking up with girls half his age."

"You know I wouldn't touch a penny of his money," Tegan said wearily. "I'd rather have eaten grass as long as Alice had everything she needed." She started the car and headed as fast as she could towards London.

"You're too proud, Tegan." Barbara surveyed the still attractive face of her former daughter-in-law and considered for the hundredth or so time that her son was really a fool.

"Johnny was too young and I was too hot-headed. I managed fine on my own. I always knew I would."

"You did a wonderful job with Alice."

"She's done us both proud, hasn't she?"

"Yes. Tegan, you're not doing this in hopes of seeing the Doctor, are you?"

"Barbara, really! From what Sarah said, he's also taken up with a girl Alice's age. I hope he's in the middle of this, figuring things out. I'm … it's been a long time since I was this scared. I want to be in London. I want to be where it's going to happen. I want to fight for my world. I want to protect Alice. She's everything to me."

"Why won't you tell me what you suspect about the ghosts?"

"I don't want to influence you. I want to show everyone at the same time I show K-9. Maybe I'm wrong. Oh, God, I hope I am."

If prayers could aid the Doctor, those who had known him, traveled with him, and loved him in one way or another were offering up many on his behalf. They had connected, some of these companions. Jo Grant Jones was running her husband's macrobiotic research farm, but she kept in touch; so did Liz Shaw. Sarah Jane Smith was a respected journalist and the one who had brought them all together. Barbara had married Ian Chesterton. Ian had died young, but they had a son, Johnny, a rock musician who had married Tegan Jovanka. Their short and fiery union had produced Alice Barbara, who had combined the genetic inheritance of her mother's husky voice with her father's musical talent to become a promising operatic contralto.

"Why aren't people more afraid? I don't understand, K-9. In the last couple of years, aliens have tried to start World War III, eaten schoolchildren, sent a third of the world's population up onto their rooftops, and blown up Downing Street. Now there are weird ghosts roaming around at suspiciously regular intervals, like they're practicing for something. What does it take to scare people?"

"Correction, Mistress. Doctor-Master blew up Downing Street."

"Oh, that was him? Well, he's an alien. I don't suppose you can detect the TARDIS anywhere, can you?"

"Negative, Mistress."

"Blast." Sarah Jane Smith started to pull into her driveway and found another car parked there. "That's Tegan's car. Looks like it's reunion time." She wrestled K-9 out of the back seat. He could have managed by himself, but she preferred her neighbors to think she was a nutter with a rubbishy tin dog. It kept them from bothering her.

Tegan, Barbara, and Alice were waiting for her inside. Sarah Jane glanced at her phone and was unsurprised to see double digits worth of messages. "I'm so popular today. Ladies, it's good to see you." She took in the gathering. It was like four generations of the Doctor's companions. Barbara was just shy of her seventieth birthday. Her hair was a shining silver helmet; her face showed few wrinkles and hinted at her keen intelligence and strong will. Sarah herself was next eldest, a graying pixie. Tegan was much the same as she had been when Sarah had met her as a war-weary TARDIS veteran in the 80s. She could have passed for a woman in her thirties with a good dye-job and makeover. Only her haunted eyes truly revealed her age. Alice resembled both her mother and grandmother and was a beautiful young woman with dark auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes. Sarah Jane wondered if Tegan's nightmares featured Alice walking into a certain odd blue box.

"We look like a witch coven," Barbara ventured, her words mirroring Sarah's thoughts.

Tegan clutched her portfolio. "I wish we could do magic. I wish we could banish troublesome spirits. Sarah, it was my idea to come to you. I have something I want to show K-9. I was hoping he could tell me if … if what I fear has any basis."

"Go ahead and show him, then, but explain it to us, too. K-9, help Tegan."

"Yes, Mistress." The little robot dog moved smoothly forward. He hovered now and was much more maneuverable than previous versions.

Tegan sat on the floor and started presenting sheets of drawing paper to K-9's scanner. She had been working for years as a professional illustrator. Sarah glimpsed images she'd seen often lately: the ghosts.

"I started drawing the ghosts as soon as they began appearing. I always thought they were trouble. You know me; I'm the suspicious sort. I thought if I drew them I would see fresh details each time. They're so indistinct. It's like your eyes don't focus on them but if you feel you looked longer that they would resolve into clear view."

"Then one night I dreamed that they did. And they turned into—" Tegan broke off with a catch in her voice. "Something I knew. Something that kills."

"Mum? You mean something you met with the Doctor, right?" Alice was trying not to sound excited. Of course she wanted to meet the Doctor. Ian, Barbara, Johnny and Tegan had not been able to keep from mentioning him. The girl had grown up on the stories, although Sarah Jane knew that Tegan had certainly emphasized the 'not bloody fun at _all_' side of TARDIS travel.

"Oh, yes. I saw a lot of death in his company. The ones I'm thinking of, that I dreamed of, he'd met more than once. Maybe you and Barbara have seen them too, Sarah. I might be only imagining the resemblance, so I don't want to influence you any more than what I've already said. Look at them." Tegan started passing around the drawings she'd already shown K-9. She had more for him that she concealed by leaning over him and blocking their view.

Sarah took hold of the drawings as they came her way. Instead of studying them closely as the others were doing, she let her unfocused gaze drift across the sheet of paper. It was a technique that had worked for her in examining unclear photographs. Sometimes a telling detail jumped out at you.

She knew what Tegan meant about influence. Sarah felt something both familiar and not right: some not-quite-remembered image was stirring in the back of her head and telling her to be very afraid.

"My analysis is ready, Mistress."

"Wait, K-9. Doesn't anyone else see it? Barbara? Sarah?"

"It's familiar. That's all I can say."

"I don't even have that much, Tegan," Barbara said regretfully.

Tegan stared at Sarah Jane.

"I think they look like Cybermen."

Sarah Jane shuddered. She and Tegan shared that particular nightmare.

"Yes, Mistress. This unit has identified several thousand points of resemblance between parallel universe Cybermen and the ghost drawings made by Mistress Tegan."

"Good dog," Sarah Jane said automatically.

It was Alice who said, "_Parallel_ universe?"

"The file was in the download received from Doctor-Master when he last visited this time period."

Tegan's voice cracked, "You're in regular communication with the Doctor?"

"No, Mistress. He initiates communications. This unit cannot transmit to the TARDIS unless it is present in this time."

"Tegan, Sarah—what are the Cybermen?" Barbara asked quietly.

"They're killers," Tegan said, her voice bitter with memory.

"And they're all over the world. Oh, God. They're _everywhere_." Sarah's mind worked frantically. Who could she contact who might believe her? Most of the UNIT gang had scattered to the four winds. Harry Sullivan was dead and the Brigadier deserved his peaceful seclusion.

"I still want to know about this parallel universe," Alice complained.

The older women were deep in thought. When K-9 started to explain, she was the one who listened the most closely.

Tegan knew she should pay attention. She kept seeing Adric's face—the dark hair and eyes, the snub nose. He was so young. He was so young. He had died at the dawn of Earth's history in such a pivotal event that the Doctor could not intervene to save him. The Cybermen were poised to conquer the world.

She stared at her daughter's lovely, eager face and saw Adric bravely telling the Doctor he'd be all right if they left him behind. She'd never seen him again. A couple of years later Tegan Jovanka had fled the TARDIS as if it had been full of demons instead of a friendly Time Lord and a sarcastic alien schoolboy. Right now she'd fling Alice through its doors if that were the only way she could protect her daughter.

The worst thing was, it might be the only way.

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

* * *

Sarah slammed down the phone. "Damn them!"

"This unit is not equipped for damnation." K-9 whirred anxiously.

"I didn't mean you. Oh… " Sarah fumbled for a curse word. None that came to her tongue seemed adequate. "They don't want to listen. I got through with the Doctor's name to some government lackey who made noises about the ghost shifts changing the world for the better. I told him that's what I was afraid of. I think I've been labeled a crackpot pretty thoroughly at this point, Tegan."

"What about the Brigadier?"

"I couldn't reach him at home. I left a message. He might have been called in to consult."

"Locked up in some government think tank? Brilliant," Tegan said sourly.

"He might do some good. He wouldn't trust these ghosts. The Brigadier never was the kind to assume strange happenings were going to end happily. He and the Doctor would argue about it pretty fiercely."

K-9's tail antenna quirked. "TARDIS contact initiated."

"Barbara! Alice! K-9 has contacted the TARDIS!" The other two women came in from the kitchen in answer to Tegan's call. Alice had a tea tray.

Barbara started passing out teacups. Tegan held Alice's hand tightly. They waited.

At last, K-9's ears twitched. "No answer."

"What do you mean, no answer?" Sarah said disbelievingly.

"The TARDIS is receiving my signal but the Doctor-Master has not answered."

"Maybe they materialized and went straight out. You know how impulsive he can be," Barbara suggested.

"Do you know where the TARDIS is?"

"The communication does not include location. A bearing by triangulation is necessary."

Alice jumped to her feet. "Does that mean we can get out of the house? Great."

"Why don't you and Alice go, Sarah Jane? No use crowding everyone into the car. We'll watch the news here." Tegan could hear the stress in her own voice. Alice turned to stare at her.

"We'll be fine, you two. Go on," Barbara said serenely, and started to flip through the news channels on the telly.

"Alice, you've got your mobile, yes? You're in charge of communications. Call Tegan's mobile if we need to get in touch; Tegan, you go online and check the international news." Sarah Jane spoke authoritatively, sweeping Alice out the door. The girl was eager to go.

Tegan watched through the window as they bundled K-9 into Sarah's car and drove off. Then she went to the computer.

"How can you be so calm, Barbara?" She called up sites and hardly looked at the web pages.

"After I lost Ian, I was no longer afraid of death."

Tegan sat back in her chair, grimly commanding her tears to abate. When the swimming in her eyes cleared, she noticed the blog page she was on. People were sharing photos of the ghosts.

Sarah Jane Smith had a very popular blog. Sarah's computer had a scanner. Tegan grabbed her portfolio and went to work. It was one thing she'd learned to do well with a computer: manipulate and upload images. The task was essential for her work and she had her own gallery web page.

Barbara looked over her shoulder and saw Tegan hard at work, her fingers flying over the keyboard and determination radiating from every inch of her. She had spoken the truth. She was no longer afraid of her own death, but she wanted life for her family. In her youth she had not been very religious. No church she'd ever attended had approached the wonders which travel in the TARDIS had shown her. Barbara had a private and personal God who she simply defined as being big enough to encompass all she'd seen and more than she could imagine.

She did not know if prayers moved this God, but while she sat with her hands clasped in her lap and her tearless eyes scanning the news broadcasts, she prayed. It brought her peace.

K-9 gave them the bearing. Sarah was used to being guided by him. She was not surprised when it turned out the TARDIS was located near the Powell Estate; she'd looked up Miss Rose Tyler.

Alice practically hung out the window. She wanted to see the TARDIS with her own eyes. Only then would it be real. Right now she didn't quite believe it. She'd grown up with the stories until the Doctor seemed no more real than King Arthur. She'd pretended that the blue police box had landed in her back garden and that she'd walked into it and had adventures with the Doctor all over time and space. When she got older, the fantasies took on an inevitable erotic luster.

That's when she'd asked Tegan the wrong question.

"Mum, were you ever in love with the Doctor?"

Tegan Jovanka, the ex Mrs. Chesterton, had turned and stared at her daughter. Alice had inherited a generous share of that formidable temper, with a good dose of her grandmother's strength of will. But she was fourteen and she shrank before the awful look in her mother's eyes. She hadn't understood what she saw there; she didn't understand what she could hear in her mother's harsh voice.

"Everyone loved the Doctor. But being in love with him, that would be like being in love with a thunderstorm. It would blow you about all you let it, and soak you to the skin, but you wouldn't want to get hit by lightning."

Alice didn't know if that was a yes or no. Even at fourteen, she got that. The other thing she knew was that she should never ask again.

Right now, she knew she wanted to meet the Doctor anyway. Because she thought, looking back, that her mother was willing to risk being lightning-struck.

She'd never yet gotten the nerve to ask Sarah Jane the same question, but she'd thought about it.

They reached the park. The TARDIS wasn't there.

"K-9? Can you still pick it up?"

"Yes, mistress. New bearings are required."

"Brilliant. He never did stay in one place for long."

"Maybe he's gone off again. He's got the whole Universe outside his door, why should he keep coming back here?" Alice let her voice be bitter. She didn't handle frustration well, but she came by that honestly.

Sarah Jane Smith reached over and grabbed Alice hard by the upper arm. The girl stared at her in shock. "He's risked his life for this planet more times than you have brain cells rattling around in your head, young lady. Even if he fails today, you wouldn't have seen one day of life in this world if it hadn't been for the Doctor. Remember that before you run your mouth again."

Sarah's rage was incandescent and matched anything Alice had ever seen her mother produce. She shrank back into the far corner of her seat.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Sarah." Her voice was soft. Alice knew she'd been bitchy. "I guess I don't quite believe in him yet. It's like being told Father Christmas comes down the chimney after all. I want to see him before I start leaving a glass of milk by the fireplace like I did when I was a kid."

Sarah's face crumpled. "I know. Sometimes I don't believe in him either." Her mouth trembled.

Alice was horrified to see the years suddenly marching across Aunt Sarah's face. She took Sarah's hand from her arm and squeezed it. "I do believe in the Doctor. I do, I do."

Sarah laughed soggily. "If that worked I'd get the whole world chanting it."

Tegan sat back, smiling. Sarah Jane's email box was filling up with responses to the blog. People had taken photographs, which scanned in, obviously matched in points with her Cybermen drawings. The message to be wary was getting out. And maybe, just maybe, some bright young thing in a government office or military lab was paying attention.

Then the ghost shift came back and the images resolved into horror. Cybermen. Up the street, down the street, in the house with them. Tegan dived behind a sofa and began to frantically dial her daughter's mobile number. She heard Barbara politely greeting the Cyberman that had appeared in Sarah Jane's flat.

"We welcome you peacefully. Please state your purpose."

Tegan jammed the mobile to her ear. _Alice. Pick up. I want to hear your voice, baby_.

"Mistress! Incoming radio transmission. Turn on radio receiver at once."

Alice's mobile rang. It was her mother's number. She kept an eye on the Cybermen appearing in the streets and spoke frantically, "You were right. They're all over the place. We didn't find the Doctor. Mum? Mum? Are you there? Oh, God, Mum, say something." On the other end, she could hear breathing, Barbara's voice, and a metallic one.

Sarah had the radio on. The message was awful. The Cybermen announced their successful invasion. In the not too great distance, they could see explosions.

"K-9? Have you located the TARDIS?"

"It is located in the area of Canary Wharf."

Right where the explosions were most visible. Of course.

"I don't think we can reach him, Alice."

Alice listened to her mother's carefully controlled breathing. Tegan was hiding. A Cyberman was with her grandmother.

"Let's go back, Aunt Sarah. We tried. Unless… well… I can walk back to your place, if you think K-9 could help the Doctor. You two could go on without me, but I'm not leaving Mum and Gran on their own. "

"Doctor-Master is not responding from the TARDIS, Mistress."

Sarah Jane Smith had been in some pretty tight spots in her life, with and without the Doctor. She felt for the shape of this problem and what could be done for it.

"K-9? Could you help him?"

"This unit is tasked to protect the Doctor-Master's friends, Mistress."

"Right. We're going home, Alice."

Sarah's car reached her driveway about the time all the Cybermen came out on the street and formed ranks to march towards Canary Wharf.

Alice rushed in. Tegan was just crawling out from behind the sofa. Alice tackled her mother and the two hugged frantically. It was Barbara who held the door for Sarah Jane and K-9 to come in. Only age had put a crimp in Barbara's straight back. Her dark eyes were as keen as ever, watching the Cybermen march away.

"It's already going wrong for them. They think they're in charge, but they no longer rule every street in this city. They're losing."

"The Doctor is that way. I'm sure he's at the bottom of it all."

Barbara chuckled. "Isn't he always?" Her voice held great fondness. She closed the door and went to make fresh tea.

They watched the news. They held each other. They drank the tea and ate Barbara's sandwiches. The Doctor was winning. The world would be safe.

Then the skies filled with Daleks and Barbara, who had been as steady as a rock, fell like a stone with paper-white skin and blue lips. While the Doctor hopped universes and schemed to defeat both his enemies, under K-9's directions Tegan and Alice performed artificial respiration on Barbara while Sarah Jane begged for an ambulance to come.

For Sarah Jane Smith, the worst part was finding in the corner of her heart a feeling of gladness that Barbara had been the one to break. To scream down the phone line gave her some outlet for her own terror as one of her worst nightmares filled the sky.

Barbara Wright Chesterton struggled inside herself. She thought she'd outlived all those old fears but all she had to do was hear the cry of 'Exterminate' to be flung into the deepest, rankest depths of her own mind. The Daleks had persecuted and pursued them over years and light years. Each time death had seemed certain, each time the Doctor had rescued them by the slimmest of margins. The temptation to let go, to be free of the fear of the Daleks forever, was so strong. But Tegan and Alice were clinging to her, holding her to life with their magnificent stubborness. And somewhere out there, the Doctor was fighting for them all. If she died now, and he found out, it would be one more pain in his old heart. Hearts.

She swallowed the aspirin. She let the fear go, and released consciousness trusting her family to be with her.

Sarah was standing at the window. She had meant to watch for an ambulance, but there were wonders in the sky. "Look," she said, standing aside so that Tegan and Alice could see without leaving Barbara. Daleks and Cybermen were being pulled helplessly through the sky.

Barbara's head was in Tegan's lap. Tegan croaked out half a laugh and stroked the sleeping woman's forehead. "He's done it again. The Doctor's done it again, Barbara."

Alice laughed and leapt up, one joyous rush taking her to the window. She was nearly twenty, but like a child at Christmas, she watched as the worst monsters of her childhood fairytales were sucked right out of the world. Sarah Jane smiled at her, and then shared a glance with Tegan. They both knew that this victory had not come without a dreadful price. But still, it was a victory. They'd lived.

"I wish we could thank him; thank the Doctor," Alice said wistfully.

"He doesn't like to be thanked, Alice. He always tries to slip out quietly when they begin the party or try to give him awards."

"I know. It's in the stories you've always told me. I just… oh, well, you know." Alice stared out the window.

No thanks, no good-byes; the Doctor got on with his life. But here in this flat, three women who had known him well and one who had known of him all her life, said 'thank you, Doctor' and 'good-bye, Doctor' in their hearts.

* * *

To be continued… 


	3. Chapter 3

The idea for this story came from lillyrose on the xmouthonlegsx lj comm. Thanks, lillyrose.

* * *

"Congratulations, Dad. Pitched gun battles in the streets of Las Vegas and you still had to get married? I'll give the lady this, if she still had the nerve to marry you with all that going on she must have guts. Lots of people are still hiding in their cellars. Yes, I'll call you every day. What? Of course she would, but your new wife—oh? That's nice of her. Of course Gran wants to see you, but she'll want to see the new girl, too. I'll get you two on the phone together tomorrow. The doctor says she needs lots of rest but otherwise she's doing fine. Don't rush back alone, you're a married man now. Again. Ta!" 

Alice hung up the phone and laughed for two minutes straight. No one was there to hear her except K-9. Sarah had an appointment with her literary agent and Tegan was at the hospital with Barbara.

"Mistress! Open the back door, Mistress!"

"K-9, why do you want to go out?"

"Imperative, Mistress."

"All right, I'm coming." Alice went to the back of the flat and opened the door onto the patio.

"T… T…."

"TARDIS."

Alice yelped. In the shadow of the deck of the flat above stood a tall young man in a pinstriped suit. It was he who had spoken. A tall blue box was standing out in the little yard.

K-9 went out past her. "Greetings, Doctor-Master."

"Hello, K-9! Good dog." He patted the metal head and the tail antenna rotated.

Alice took a deep breath and cleared her throat, glad of the professional training that gave her command of her voice.

"Doctor. Were you looking for Aunt Sarah Jane?"

"Yes, I picked up K-9's messages. Who are you? You look familiar."

Alice grinned and stepped outside to let him get a good look at her under the light. "Aunt Sarah said if I ever met you, I should tell you my full name. It's Alice Barbara Chesterton."

The Doctor smiled and when his brown eyes lit up she realized his face had been grave before. "You're Barbara's daughter?"

"No. Granddaughter. I was named for both my grandmothers," she said mischievously.

His gaze sharpened and she felt butterflies in her stomach. _A thousand year old time traveling world saving alien genius is looking at me and figuring out things about me. It IS him. I do believe in the Doctor, I do, I do._

Alice laughed her deep husky chuckle.

He reached out suddenly and took hold of her chin, turning her face to look at her profile. She'd teased him, but Alice wasn't sure she liked that even from her childhood hero. Her fine straight brows drew together and she frowned at him.

_She holds herself tall and straight as a queen. That's like Barbara. But her voice, her nose, and that wary look…_

"Oh, good grief. You're _Tegan's_ daughter, aren't you? That's… incredible! Wonderful!"

The Doctor stared at her as though she were some marvel on a distant alien world. Alice couldn't help smiling. "So you are a genius."

"Can I hug you? Because I've practically got to."

"Of course you can. You're my godfather."

He hugged her, half-raising her from her feet in sheer glee. "Godfather? How did that happen?"

"Dad put your name down on the baptismal certificate and Professor Jones stood in for you. You know, Jo Grant's Professor. Mum always said she thought it was fair that the Professor stood in for the Doctor."

"Sarah Jane insisted I put it down just that way. 'The Doctor', not Doctor John Smith. She was the godmother." The Doctor let go of Alice. Tegan was standing in the doorway. "Hello, Doctor."

Alice murmured, "Mum, I called Dad. I promised him he could talk to Gran tomorrow. She'll still be in hospital, right?"

"They want to keep her one more day. Doctor, would you like to come see her? To see Barbara?"

"How could I come all this way and not see Barbara? Mrs. Chesterton now, is it?"

"It's Miss Jovanka. I'm divorced. I think Johnny was more in love with you than me, anyway," Tegan said in her old dry way. "It didn't work out, except for Alice, of course."

"I'm a godfather! Best news I've had all day." He smiled and shook his head as though he didn't quite believe it.

Tegan looked past him to the TARDIS. "Alice, love, give us a moment, please?"

"I'll get the car. I'm not missing this. Gran won't be half chuffed!"

"Go inside, K-9."

"Yes, Mistress." The robot dog followed Alice into the house.

The Doctor was still grinning from ear to ear. "I'm so happy for you, Tegan. I love how she's like both you and Barbara. If her temper goes with her looks she must have the tender, yielding disposition of a wall made of dwarf star matter."

"She's a sweet girl but she knows how to stand up for herself." Tegan had hung back as if afraid she might be sucked into the TARDIS. The Doctor didn't come to her, and she realized he was looking at her as if uncertain of his welcome. His smile dimmed. So she went to him and put her hands on his chest, over his hearts. She was grown up now; she should act like it.

"I inherited my grandfather's cottage in Little Hodcombe. Barbara and I live there together. She still does some tutoring in history and she likes his library. I'm a professional artist. I've done illustrations for Sarah's work. I've a beautiful daughter who is a very talented singer. That was Johnny's blood. He's a rock musician. She's studying opera. I'm very happy, Doctor. It's so good to see you again." Tegan glanced at the TARDIS. Sarah Jane had had a lot to say, over a few glasses of gin, about lovely, young, blonde Rose Tyler. The Doctor was smiling at her, but she knew in her bones that he was not as happy as he appeared.

Tegan did not ask. She hugged him, and he put his arms around her and hugged her back as though she were made of glass.

"I'm glad. We didn't part very well."

"I'm indestructible, remember?"

His arms tightened around her then and she felt his breath stirring her hair in a long sigh. "I remember." Some of the tension left his wiry body.

Tegan did not ask about Rose. She stepped back. "I'll see if Sarah Jane can meet us at the hospital. Go join Alice, you." She fished out her phone.

"Still coordinating? I always knew how to pick them." Pain twisted his face briefly and she pretended not to see it. Yet.

The Doctor sat up front with Alice. Tegan sat in back, deep in thought and letting the others talk with few interruptions from her.

"So where's your old dad?"

"Las Vegas. He was there when this started, getting married again. It's his fourth!"

"I'm a hard act to follow," Tegan said in her most hard-boiled Australian way. It made the Doctor laugh, as she hoped it would.

"I can't believe she's already pregnant. Oh, bloody hell. I'm going to have a kid brother or sister one-twentieth my age. Mum, if anyone asks, _please_ tell them you were a child bride."

Tegan snorted.

Alice kept glancing at the Doctor.

"Go on. You know you want to ask."

"Oh, all right, then. What happened to the Cybermen and the Daleks? We all saw them flying through the sky."

"I sucked them all into the void between two universes. You see, there's this parallel universe where these Cyber—"

"K-9 told us. Mum was the first one to guess what they were. She'd been drawing the ghosts then she had a dream that they turned into Cybermen," Alice said proudly.

The Doctor looked back at Tegan and she regarded at him levelly. "The ones I remembered, of course, not these… parallel robots."

He nodded. "I saw your drawings in K-9's transmission. Well done, Tegan." His voice was a little hoarse. She knew they were both remembering Adric's death, and wondered if he was thinking of other, more recent deaths. With that tone, his voice reminded her strongly of the blond Doctor she'd traveled with. He looked that age now, only quite different.

A certain detail struck Tegan. "I can't believe you're wearing hair gel."

Alice chuckled. Her voice was far more musical than Tegan's—even without the Australian accent Tegan's potential as an opera star was severely hampered. Sometimes she thought she could forgive Johnny all the arguments and pain when she heard Alice's laugh.

The Doctor touched his hair lightly. "It just seemed right. How about the suit? Look, no celery!" He turned to flash his bare lapel.

"Thank God for small favors. Your suit is sharp, Doctor, even if you're wearing trainers with it."

"He's got this brilliant neo-retro thing going on. I approve," Alice gave her opinion then suddenly blushed as if she could feel Tegan's eyes on the back of her head.

"Appropriate for a time traveler, no?" The Doctor grinned at Alice and she blushed more. He looked back at Tegan. "What happened to Barbara?"

"When the Cyberman showed up in the flat she was fine. She might have been having it there for afternoon tea, she was so superbly calm. But seeing the Daleks was a little much for her heart to take." The Doctor's face grew so grim it almost frightened Tegan. "She'll be fine, Doctor. Barbara is as healthy as a human of her years can be. She was so brave. I was hiding behind the sofa trying to get Alice on the phone."

It was past visiting hours at the hospital, but the Doctor got them in by flashing some fake credentials that apparently convinced the head nurse he was a proper medical Doctor.

"Shameless," Tegan murmured, and he winked as he passed her.

At Barbara's bedside, he was all seriousness. He leaned over the bed and stared at her for a long moment. Alice pulled a chair up to the other side of the bed and sat down by her grandmother, taking her hand. "Gran, Gran… there's someone here to see you," she called very softly, though the Doctor lifted a hand to stop her.

He had recognized immediately that tall slim body and the fine proud bones of her face. Her hair was silver, but much the same style as it had been over forty years ago. At Alice's call, the papery lids rose and Barbara's firm gaze settled on him.

"It's me, Barbara. The Doctor." He took her other hand.

"What a reversal. Now you are young and I'm old. At least, to outward appearances." She smiled at him. "How old are you now, Doctor? Don't leave out a year—every one you own up to will make me feel like an infant."

"Nearly a thousand," he said as if confessing a scandal.

"And how's the TARDIS?"

"Still the best ship in the universe. You'd hardly know her now; I've changed the internal configuration so much. Would you like to see her?"

She shook her head slightly. "No, Doctor. I'd rather remember it as it was that night you kidnapped Ian and me. He's gone, you know—cancer. Who are you traveling with now?"

The door opened and Sarah Jane came in, still holding her press credentials in one hand. Sarah had a way of getting in places, too. "Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith, right, Doctor?"

Tegan bit her lip and swiftly glanced at the Doctor. He wasn't crying. He wasn't crying because he was the Doctor. He wasn't crying because he was a thousand year old Time Lord, the last survivor of his race. He wasn't crying because Barbara was old and frail and he didn't wish to distress her. Tegan rather thought that if all those things weren't true, he would weep there and now. She went to stand behind Alice's chair and stroked her daughter's dark auburn hair.

"Not any more," the Doctor's mouth imitated a smile. "They're living in the parallel universe. They've family there who were already dead here, years ago. Rose's father and Mickey's grandmother."

Alice looked up at him, innocently confused. "But wouldn't they be different people?"

"Not so different as all that. Rose's mother was dead there, but when this universe's Jackie Tyler met that universe's Pete Tyler… it was love at second sight." A real smile curved his lips, betraying the falseness of its predecessor.

Barbara squeezed his hand. "That's a beautiful story, Doctor. I'm so glad I got to see you again, but I really can't keep my eyes open another moment. I've already taken my sleeping pill."

"I'm lucky to have caught you before you nodded off. Sweet dreams, Barbara Wright Chatterton." He leaned over and kissed Barbara on the cheek.

She closed her eyes, smiling. "Chesterton, you cranky old man—you always got it wrong on purpose." They left Barbara to her rest.

The Doctor laughed softly and turned away, thrusting his hands into his pockets. Sarah had picked up on his distress too, Tegan saw, but Alice simply didn't know him well enough.

"Mum said you were always putting your hands in your pockets," Alice said in perfectly controlled sotto voce. Laughter ran through the words like a thread of 24-karat gold.

"Hard to break bad habits at my age," the Doctor said breezily and held the door for the ladies.

"Don't, please!" Alice told him teasingly. "I grew up hearing all about them, and I should think you were a stranger if you didn't have them. Keep them!"

_She's flirting_. Tegan noticed it with grim unsurprise. _Hard to blame her. He's damned good looking this regeneration and more charming than ever. Mine was far more reserved._ Tegan Jovanka reminded herself she was a gray-haired matron, a grown woman, and far too sensible to be jealous of her own daughter. And of the Doctor! She'd better worry that Alice would get her heart broken.

Beside her, Sarah Jane shook her head ever so slightly and ruefully. Tegan exchanged glances with her friend out of the corners of their eyes and shrugged. In female talk, it was a whole conversation.

Ahead of them, Alice chatted brightly with the Doctor, making him laugh. Tegan elected to join Sarah in her car for the drive home.

"Tegan, do you know what you're doing?"

"Letting nature take its course. Sarah Jane… if we didn't want her to be fascinated by the Doctor, we should have kept our mouths shut twenty years ago. It's far, far, too late now. My daughter's got a good head on her shoulders. She'll make the right decision for her."

"She's making him laugh. Something's wrong. I mean… he's upset. I think he parted badly from Rose. They were thick as thieves. You should have seen the look on her face when Mickey asked to travel with him. Rose was madly in love with the Doctor. I know the signs. I would have left my mother for him. I don't think she meant to leave him."

"Sarah, we can't ask him about it. The most British thing about the Doctor was always his stiff upper lip."

"He goes on, I know. It's how he copes." Sarah Jane's hands flexed on the steering wheel and she did not look at Tegan.

Back at the flat, Tegan declined a visit to the TARDIS. "Like Barbara, I want to remember it as it was then. Doctor… I know you rarely get a chance to visit old friends, but if you ever do go by Terminus again, you will give Nyssa my love, won't you?"

"Of course, I will," he promised her, both knowing how unlikely it was.

Sarah Jane set about making tea. The two older women thus colluded to leave Alice alone with the Doctor.

She, of course, could never have turned down the chance. He opened the door for her.

When Rose Tyler had paid her first visit to the Earth of her past, she had stepped out of the TARDIS as a bride goes to her wedding. That was how Alice Barbara Chesterton entered the TARDIS. Her eyes were round and sparkling. She kept clutching her hands to her chest as if afraid her heart would burst free.

"Oh, Doctor," she said exultantly, "It I is /I bigger on the inside than the outside. Just like all the stories." Alice almost danced around the console. She touched things with her fingertips as if expecting them to be as fragile as soap bubbles, figments of a dream landscape.

He watched her from the shadows, his arms folded across his chest. When she turned to look at his silent figure, he spoke at last. "So. Fancy a spin?"

"Yes. And no. If you'd showed up when I was eight, Doctor, I would have stowed away and we would have had wonderful adventures and you would help me save the universe." She came closer, standing in a spot where she was slightly elevated. He had to lift his face to hers, into the light where she could see him. "If you'd showed up when I was fourteen, I would have consented to marry you and go on wonderful adventures in between having children. It's a good thing you didn't show up when I was fourteen. Close escape you had there." He grinned at her.

"And now?"

"I've already given myself to something bigger than I am, Doctor. Music. I'm going to be very good." Alice spoke out of knowledge, not arrogance, and the passion of an artist. "Music is the pursuit of perfection. When I sing, it is for ears that notice the smallest flaw in my performance, that hear every shade of inadequacy in the instrument that is my voice. It's impossible to be good enough. But sometimes the impossible happens, and I sing as if Time itself stood still and all the Universe listened. And to make those moments possible, I have to give all of myself. No lesser sacrifice is accepted."

"I'd like to hear you sing someday."

"Do me a favor, Time Lord. Pick a night when the reviews say I sang like an angel." They both chuckled, and then she asked the Question. "Doctor, what happened to Rose Tyler?"

"She was going to stay. She left her mother behind in the other universe to stay with me. She was with me when I reversed the void to take all the Daleks and Cybermen to hell. She nearly fell in with them. Her father crossed universes to save her, and if he hadn't taken her back with him she'd be in hell right now. Now the breach is sealed and there's no way to get back there. It's impossible."

Alice looked down into the face of a man who was in hell right now. Alien, a thousand years old: he was still a man in hell. She walked down to join him. She spoke to him, and Alice felt the word come from the same place the music did in those rare moments of perfection. "You should make Time stand still and the universe listen to you, Doctor. Do the impossible. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't."

The knife went in with love. Alice put her hand on his shoulder, and as Nyssa of Traken had done, kissed him softly on the cheek in farewell. He brushed his cheek against hers, and then she let him be, there in the darkness of his place of power.

When she got to the door, she heard him speak from where she'd left him. "Alice, tell your mother I'm very proud of my god-daughter." She smiled over her shoulder at him and went out. By the time she'd opened the back door of the flat, the TARDIS started to roar in dematerialization.

Alice walked in crying to the accompaniment of the farewell song of the TARDIS. Her mother carefully hid her relief and hugged her.

"Oh, mum… he lost her. I think he loved her, Rose." As a proper budding opera star, Alice cleared her throat and got control of her voice. She told them what had passed between her and the Doctor without varnishing her own role.

Sarah Jane dried her own tears in silence, leaving Tegan to speak.

"Alice, love… that's one man you _never_ tell to do the impossible. He'll do it. Don't cry. He would have done it anyway. You put it into words, that's all."

"I felt like I had to. The words said themselves."

In the bathroom, Alice washed her face and listened to the voices of Sarah and Tegan sitting down to tea. They'd done the end of the world multiple times, but this was her first. She had sent the Doctor out into the stars alone, and hurting. Now she was part of the stories.

Alice Barbara Chesterton breathed. It was deliberate breathing, testing the readiness of her carefully trained instrument. The throat was so vulnerable to harm. Her breath fogged the window and she rubbed it clear. Up in the sky she could see the first bright star of the evening. Somewhere, out there and over the rainbow, the Doctor was living the stories. Very softly, for only her ears and impossibly his, Alice sang.

_When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are  
Anything your heart desires will come to you._

The End


End file.
